diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 179c5713e6..c9c24b14a9 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ install:
  - pip install -r test-requirements.txt
 # command to run tests
 script:
- - pep8 mycroft test
+ - pycodestyle mycroft test
  - ./start-mycroft.sh unittest
 env:
  - IS_TRAVIS=true
diff --git a/dev_setup.sh b/dev_setup.sh
index 99188f1a2f..d0197ecb47 100755
--- a/dev_setup.sh
+++ b/dev_setup.sh
@@ -369,8 +369,8 @@ source "${VIRTUALENV_ROOT}/bin/activate"
 cd "${TOP}"
 
 # Install pep8 pre-commit hook
-if [ -z ${INSTALL_PRECOMMIT_HOOK} ] ; then
-    HOOK_FILE="./.git/hooks/pre-commit"
+HOOK_FILE="./.git/hooks/pre-commit"
+if [ ! -z ${INSTALL_PRECOMMIT_HOOK+x} ] || grep -q "MYCROFT DEV SETUP" ${HOOK_FILE}; then
     if [ ! -f ${HOOK_FILE} ] || grep -q "MYCROFT DEV SETUP" ${HOOK_FILE} ; then
         echo "Installing PEP8 check as precommit-hook"
         echo "#! $( which python )" > ${HOOK_FILE}
diff --git a/mycroft/api/__init__.py b/mycroft/api/__init__.py
index dc2b041e0a..a0c219289c 100644
--- a/mycroft/api/__init__.py
+++ b/mycroft/api/__init__.py
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ class Api:
     def get_data(self, response):
         try:
             return response.json()
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             return response.text
 
     def build_headers(self, params):
@@ -331,7 +331,7 @@ class DeviceApi(Api):
         """
         try:
             return self.get_subscription().get('@type') != 'free'
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             # If can't retrieve, assume not paired and not a subscriber yet
             return False
 
diff --git a/mycroft/audio/services/mopidy/__init__.py b/mycroft/audio/services/mopidy/__init__.py
index d9adb7821e..cfdaa1ff43 100644
--- a/mycroft/audio/services/mopidy/__init__.py
+++ b/mycroft/audio/services/mopidy/__init__.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ class MopidyService(RemoteAudioBackend):
             url = self.config.get('url', url)
         try:
             self.mopidy = Mopidy(url)
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             if self.connection_attempts < 1:
                 LOG.debug('Could not connect to server, will retry quietly')
             self.connection_attempts += 1
diff --git a/mycroft/audio/services/mopidy/mopidypost.py b/mycroft/audio/services/mopidy/mopidypost.py
index a9653e867e..9efd1dda43 100644
--- a/mycroft/audio/services/mopidy/mopidypost.py
+++ b/mycroft/audio/services/mopidy/mopidypost.py
@@ -53,11 +53,11 @@ class Mopidy:
         d['method'] = 'core.library.search'
         d['params'] = {'album': [album]}
         r = requests.post(self.url, data=json.dumps(d))
-        l = [res['albums'] for res in r.json()['result'] if 'albums' in res]
+        lst = [res['albums'] for res in r.json()['result'] if 'albums' in res]
         if filter is None:
-            return l
+            return lst
         else:
-            return [i for sl in l for i in sl if filter + ':' in i['uri']]
+            return [i for sl in lst for i in sl if filter + ':' in i['uri']]
 
     def find_exact(self, uris='null'):
         d = copy(_base_dict)
diff --git a/mycroft/messagebus/service/ws.py b/mycroft/messagebus/service/ws.py
index 7a5e3b3133..272979eb49 100644
--- a/mycroft/messagebus/service/ws.py
+++ b/mycroft/messagebus/service/ws.py
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ class WebsocketEventHandler(tornado.websocket.WebSocketHandler):
         # LOG.debug(message)
         try:
             deserialized_message = Message.deserialize(message)
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             return
 
         try:
diff --git a/mycroft/stt/__init__.py b/mycroft/stt/__init__.py
index f05ef7df71..4cb48de529 100644
--- a/mycroft/stt/__init__.py
+++ b/mycroft/stt/__init__.py
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ class MycroftSTT(STT):
         try:
             return self.api.stt(audio.get_flac_data(convert_rate=16000),
                                 self.lang, 1)[0]
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             return self.api.stt(audio.get_flac_data(), self.lang, 1)[0]
 
 
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ class KaldiSTT(STT):
         try:
             hypotheses = response.json()["hypotheses"]
             return re.sub(r'\s*\[noise\]\s*', '', hypotheses[0]["utterance"])
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             return None
 
 
diff --git a/mycroft/tts/__init__.py b/mycroft/tts/__init__.py
index 73735ab775..43c26bf7fc 100644
--- a/mycroft/tts/__init__.py
+++ b/mycroft/tts/__init__.py
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ class PlaybackThread(Thread):
             self.queue.get()
         try:
             self.p.terminate()
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             pass
 
     def run(self):
@@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ class TTS:
                 with open(pho_file, "r") as cachefile:
                     phonemes = cachefile.read().strip()
                 return phonemes
-            except:
+            except Exception:
                 LOG.debug("Failed to read .PHO from cache")
         return None
 
diff --git a/mycroft/tts/espeak_tts.py b/mycroft/tts/espeak_tts.py
index 5110e8666c..e9ceeb60b5 100644
--- a/mycroft/tts/espeak_tts.py
+++ b/mycroft/tts/espeak_tts.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ class ESpeakValidator(TTSValidator):
     def validate_connection(self):
         try:
             subprocess.call(['espeak', '--version'])
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             raise Exception(
                 'ESpeak is not installed. Run: sudo apt-get install espeak')
 
diff --git a/mycroft/tts/fa_tts.py b/mycroft/tts/fa_tts.py
index fcdcdee55f..147a8c8407 100644
--- a/mycroft/tts/fa_tts.py
+++ b/mycroft/tts/fa_tts.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ class FATTSValidator(TTSValidator):
             content = resp.json()
             if content.get('product', '').find('FA-TTS') < 0:
                 raise Exception('Invalid FA-TTS server.')
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             raise Exception(
                 'FA-TTS server could not be verified. Check your connection '
                 'to the server: ' + self.tts.url)
diff --git a/mycroft/tts/google_tts.py b/mycroft/tts/google_tts.py
index 1c7e95bfdb..6dc0778cb2 100644
--- a/mycroft/tts/google_tts.py
+++ b/mycroft/tts/google_tts.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ class GoogleTTSValidator(TTSValidator):
     def validate_connection(self):
         try:
             gTTS(text='Hi').save(self.tts.filename)
-        except:
+        except Except:
             raise Exception(
                 'GoogleTTS server could not be verified. Please check your '
                 'internet connection.')
diff --git a/mycroft/tts/mary_tts.py b/mycroft/tts/mary_tts.py
index d4709c69ff..993bfeaeaf 100644
--- a/mycroft/tts/mary_tts.py
+++ b/mycroft/tts/mary_tts.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ class MaryTTSValidator(TTSValidator):
             resp = requests.get(self.tts.url + "/version", verify=False)
             if resp.content.find('Mary TTS server') < 0:
                 raise Exception('Invalid MaryTTS server.')
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             raise Exception(
                 'MaryTTS server could not be verified. Check your connection '
                 'to the server: ' + self.tts.url)
diff --git a/mycroft/tts/mimic_tts.py b/mycroft/tts/mimic_tts.py
index 4848dfc248..303a4e41d2 100644
--- a/mycroft/tts/mimic_tts.py
+++ b/mycroft/tts/mimic_tts.py
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ class MimicValidator(TTSValidator):
     def validate_connection(self):
         try:
             subprocess.call([BIN, '--version'])
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             LOG.info("Failed to find mimic at: " + BIN)
             raise Exception(
                 'Mimic was not found. Run install-mimic.sh to install it.')
diff --git a/mycroft/tts/spdsay_tts.py b/mycroft/tts/spdsay_tts.py
index 53a323a1cb..7aac241920 100644
--- a/mycroft/tts/spdsay_tts.py
+++ b/mycroft/tts/spdsay_tts.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ class SpdSayValidator(TTSValidator):
     def validate_connection(self):
         try:
             subprocess.call(['spd-say', '--version'])
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             raise Exception(
                 'SpdSay is not installed. Run: sudo apt-get install '
                 'speech-dispatcher')
diff --git a/scripts/pre-commit b/scripts/pre-commit
index d0cf54185e..01affc6d43 100755
--- a/scripts/pre-commit
+++ b/scripts/pre-commit
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ import tempfile
 # don't fill in both of these
 select_codes = []
 ignore_codes = ["E121", "E122", "E123", "E124", "E125", "E126", "E127", "E128",
-                "E129", "E501", "E722", "E226"]
+                "E129", "E501", "E722", "E226", "W504"]
 # Add things like "--max-line-length=120" below
 overrides = []
 
@@ -40,7 +40,10 @@ def main():
         with open(filename, 'w') as f:
             system('git', 'show', ':' + name, stdout=f)
 
-    args = ['pep8']
+    checker_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),
+                                 '..', '..', '.venv', 'bin', 'pycodestyle')
+    checker_path = os.path.abspath(checker_path)
+    args = [checker_path]
     if select_codes and ignore_codes:
         print(u'Error: select and ignore codes are mutually exclusive')
         sys.exit(1)
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index 8ada8157c9..68b6937b91 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-pep8==1.7.0
+pycodestyle===2.5.0
 coveralls==1.5.0
 pytest==3.5.0
 pytest-cov==2.5.1
diff --git a/test/unittests/tts/test_tts.py b/test/unittests/tts/test_tts.py
index efb74ed1e9..63da8b69a5 100644
--- a/test/unittests/tts/test_tts.py
+++ b/test/unittests/tts/test_tts.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class TestTTS(unittest.TestCase):
                            "a lower pitch preferable?"
         sentence_bad_ssml = "<foo_invalid>" + sentence + \
                             "</foo_invalid end=whatever>"
-        sentence_extra_ssml = "<whispered>whisper tts<\whispered>"
+        sentence_extra_ssml = "<whispered>whisper tts<\\whispered>"
 
         # test valid ssml
         tts = TestTTS("en-US", {}, TestTTSValidator(None),
diff --git a/test/unittests/util/test_format_it.py b/test/unittests/util/test_format_it.py
index 60a5abbc45..b8fe4c7a8f 100644
--- a/test/unittests/util/test_format_it.py
+++ b/test/unittests/util/test_format_it.py
@@ -353,5 +353,6 @@ class TestPronounceNumber(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(pronounce_number(float("-inf"),
                                           lang="it"), "meno infinito")
 
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()